Economic discrimination and an institutional distaste for mobile homes are the basis for a civil suit against the city by Midfield park residents.

Filed Friday in Calgary court, the suit claims the city’s move to close down the troubled mobile home park violates both the Mobile Home Sites Tenancies Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“They were targeted,” said the Guardian Law Group’s Mathew Farrell, who is representing Midfield residents in the case.

“They deliberately neglected the infrastructure in Midfield, and then said they had to destroy it because the infrastructure has been neglected. . . As a result, the city’s destroyed the value of the residents’ property without paying them fair compensation.”

That’s the basis for the claimed breach of the Mobile Home Sites Tenancies act, alleging the city deliberately destroyed the equity in the homes of Midfield residents, saying the court should either award damages in compensation or refuse to grant writs of possession — the city’s next move to force out Midfield’s handful of holdouts.

For more than a decade, plans have been in the works to close down the city-owned 16 Avenue N.E. mobile home park.

Empty lots around a few homes at Midfield Mobile Home Park in Calgary on Tuesday October 10, 2017.Leah Hennel /
Leah Hennel/Postmedia

Relocating residents to a new site has always been a part of those plans, with the city even purchasing land in 2009 for a new park in the community of East Hills.

Midfield residents were therefore shocked to find notices taped to their doors in 2014, demanding the park be vacated by Sept. 2017 and learning the promised relocation wasn’t going to happen.

Residents were offered $10,000 loss-of-equity compensation and reimbursements of up to the same amount for trailer relocation or destruction — as long as they signed forms releasing the city from legal culpability.

In terms of the Charter violations, Farrell argues the city’s actions show differential treatment towards mobile home owners in general and Midfield park residents in particular.

“The reason the residents of Midfield are being treated differently is because they live in mobile homes,” Farrell said. “We’re talking about a group that has a bunch of pre-existing disadvantages subjected to stereotyping and negative prejudices, and you do something to them that reinforces those prejudices — that’s unconstitutional.

Section 15 of the Charter states all are equal under the law, guaranteeing unbiased protection without discrimination.

Both the city’s actions and declared intentions for the Midfield site are evidence of this institutional bias, the claim argues.

For example, the 2006 Area Restructuring Plan outlining a future vision for the 16 Avenue corridor calls for an “architecturally significant” redevelopment for the Midfield site; one that would “announce to visitors that they were entering a unique community, and bolster the image of Calgary in general.”

A man gets help from his brothers as they move a fridge out of a narrow door at the Midfield Trailer Park in northeast Calgary Saturday, September 23, 2017.JimWells/Postmedia

That vision, Farrell says, doesn’t include mobile home parks.

“These are people who worked hard,” he said.

“They don’t have fancy jobs, but they scrimped and they saved and they bought — maybe not a house, but a home.

“They’ve invested their savings in that asset, and now the city comes in and destroys its value — in many cases literally.”

The claim includes statements made by former area Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra, whom during a meeting with Midfield residents said both he and Mayor Naheed Nenshi “no longer want mobile home parks to be part of Calgary’s affordable housing strategy.”

The case is set to appear before a judge on Nov. 22, where Farrell is confident Midfield residents will finally get the justice they’ve sought for years.

None of the suit’s claims have been proven and the city has yet to file a statement of defence.

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